Have you ever been in mid-flight just before sunrise? Gazing out of the little porthole windows as the deep blue sky above the cloud canopy is painted with a swath of orange when the sun crowns on the horizon. The once dark clouds take on hues of cool blues and warm reds, yellows, and oranges, as the sun glistens off the metallic wings of the plane. It’s one of the most gorgeous views, and for a moment all your stresses and worries float away like the water vapor beneath you. Fitting music further enhances the experience drowning out the rumble of the jet engines and those pesky air vents. With the release of No Way Down, Gothenburg, Sweden’s Air France may have just created the perfect soundtrack for such an event. The duo’s six-song EP sounds like a party in a tropical paradise filtered through a haze of gauzy, atmospheric dreampop. It’s a bit in the same line as the new M83 record, but with more of a tropical punch. The appropriately titled “June Evening” invokes imagery of a stumbling on a dance party in the middle of a balmy forest in, you guessed it, June. Ethereal vocals are penetrated by marimbas, samples of various birds, a thumping beat, and sweltering synths perfect for keeping you feet firmly planted on the ground while your head may otherwise be in the sky.

Stream and buy Air France’s No Way Down EP, out now on Swedish Imprint Sincerely Yours.

[MP3]: Air France  ”June Evening”
No Way Down, Sincerely Yours; 2008

GET HYPE! Crystal Castles, HEALTH, Team Robespierre, and Apache Beat are primed to mess with your ears tonight at the Mercury Lounge for our SOLD OUT installment of FRICTION. Crystal Castles bring their distorted electro all the way from Toronto, while HEALTH’s blasts of noise mess with your head, this of course, after locals Team Robespierre and Apache Beat freak you out with their spazzed-out pop-screamo and tropical psychedelia. Dayton Ohio’s, Ruckus Roboticus will be spinning his own tracks between sets. Afterparty to follow at The Annex.

Doors open @ 7:30PM. MP3′s, full details, and more. Here

Crystal Castles cover photo © Ren Rox 2007
Crystal Castles (above) © Patrick Parault 2007

I first stumbled across Los Angeles tropical punk outfit, Abe Vigoda, while checking out Brooklyn faves High Places’ West Coast tour dates. I was initially intrigued by the quartet’s peculiar moniker, taken from the “late” Abe Vigoda, the American actor who’s been “reported dead as many times as he’s been reported alive.” However quirky the name, it soon became irrelevant after soaking up the group’s recorded material and checking out some of their live vids.

Abe Vigoda comes from the same experimental downtown LA scene as bands like No Age, Mika Miko, Health, Mae Shi, and Barr, which is centered around the infamous all-ages venue, The Smell. Abe Vigoda dishes out quick and catchy island dance music, where Caribbean melodies and conga beats meet speedily strummed no wave guitars and molesting walls of noise. Their songs thrash and bounce at the same time and have been described as “a cross between Captain Beefheart and Crass” by No Age guitarist Randy Randall. Think of High Places on speed with thrashing guitars and you have Abe Vigoda, well, something like that at least.

Check out “Animal Ghosts” below and head over to RCRD LBL to get a taste of the group’s new track from their forthcoming record, “Dead City/Waste Wilderness.” Given the weather here in the Northeast for the last few days (dull grey skies), these two tracks are a blast of warm and colorful tropical island air.

[MP3]: Abe Vigoda  ”Animal Ghosts”